Harper practices politics of disengagement over Duffy disaster

While all of Ottawa was mesmerized Thursday by the drama of Mike Duffy’s unravelling career, and the cascade of contradictory tales emanating from the prime minister’s closest aides, Stephen Harper was in New York, explaining why it was important for Washington to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The Prime Minister’s Office, in testudo formation, appears to be steeling itself for a long siege. It could spare itself the trouble and cut to the denouement: Sen. Mike Duffy is already gone, out of the Tory caucus as of late Thursday. Chief of Staff Nigel Wright is next in line. Prime Minister Stephen Harper hits “reset” on his office and then on his government, with a far-reaching cabinet shuffle, as has long been planned. Then they pray for a break on pipelines, and trade.

Those are the PM’s best options, under the circumstances. But even if he moves surgically and swiftly, this mess doesn’t go away, as others have. The reason is simply that the government, at its highest level, appears to have condoned deception and fraud. Or, as people who “work hard and play by the rules” might express it: lying and theft. True-blue Conservatives in Alberta, in rural and small-town Ontario, indeed everywhere, will be staring Ottawa-ward and wondering: What the hell?

Scandal? What scandal? The Prime Minister was making jokes about Venezuela, addressing queries over climate change and even answering questions about his resistance to an inquiry into missing or murdered aboriginal women.

Change a few words and he could have been offering his view on the Senate itself. If the Prime Minister has appeared oblivious to the circus unfolding in Ottawa, unmindful of the damage it’s doing to his government’s image and credibility, it may be because he’s been skeptical of the Senate since the day he took office. When you view something as a joke to begin with, maybe it’s hard to get worked up when it draws even more laughs than usual.

Mr. Harper has never hidden the fact his goal is to reform the Senate. Until then, he has little time for it. “I will not name appointed people to the Senate,” he vowed as opposition leader. In the early days of his first minority government he stuck to that pledge, refusing to appoint new senators except when it suited his needs. His first appointment was Michael Fortier, because it was the only way he could get the Montreal businessman into his cabinet.

“I remain very skeptical of commissions of inquiry generally,” he said of that latter issue. “My experience has been they almost always run way over time, way over budget, and often the recommendations prove to be of limited utility.”

After that he held off for more than a year as ageing senators were forced to retire and vacancies piled up. Then, as if he’d suddenly got religion, he started appointing them in bunches: 18 here, nine there, until, by January this year, he’d put 58 senators in their jobs. That meant more than half the 105 senators owed their position to him, and Conservative appointees outnumbered Liberals for the first time in ages.

It wasn’t that he’d grown to appreciate the place, though. Harper’s change of tactic appeared to stem more from the realization that the ability of the Senate to delay or obstruct legislation was a greater bother than the annoyance of finding people to fill its empty spaces. During the Tories’ years of minority government, the Liberals had a swell time using their Senate presence to get up the nose of Conservative ministers who objected to having their plans thwarted, even if just temporarily, by a bunch of Liberal appointees. Harper solved that by stuffing the chamber with acolytes of his own, and wasn’t too choosy about who he selected, as long as thy agreed to do as told and to step down “voluntarily” after eight years.

A hockey coach, a football executive, some failed Tory candidates, a broadcaster or two, a famous skier, former aides and party fundraisers … it was hardly an august crew, but when you’re busy stuffing, you don’t worry a lot about the quality of the material being used. That being the attitude, it was easy to make mistakes. Patrick Brazeau was hailed as “a champion of the rights of Aboriginals,” while Mike Duffy — appointed in the same class of 2008 — was praised as “one of Canada’s most well known and respected news personalities.”

Oops. Now he and Brazeau form a party of two Independents, chased from the Conservative caucus over improper expense claims, among other issues.

Mr. Harper seems unperturbed. Rather than eject Duffy weeks ago when it became clear he was destined to be a problem, he busied himself with other matters while cabinet members tried to divert attention to less embarrassing matters. On Thursday that consisted of House Leader Peter Van Loan trying to smear NDP leader Thomas Mulcair over an encounter with Laval’s disgraced former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, 17 years ago.

“Why did it take a public inquiry into the biggest corruption scandal in Canadian history for Thomas Mulcair to finally come clean with Canadians?” Van Loan demanded.

He was talking about the corruption scandal in Quebec, not the delay in Duffy coming clean about his expenses. It was a weak try, and pointedly sleazy, but at this point few Ottawa regulars would have expected anything different from the government. Mr. Harper, as usual, stayed out of it. Having such little regard for the Senate, he remains heedless of its troubles. But he also appears to be curiously apathetic to the damage it does to his government. This is no longer a “Liberal Senate” he can dismiss out of hand, it’s one filled with Harper appointees following Harper orders. If they behave like buffoons, it’s the result of Harper decisions and Harper actions.

Sen. Mike Duffy is a creation of Stephen Harper. People notice, Even if you’re busy in New York.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.